{"id":5137,"date":"2025-08-04T20:13:06","date_gmt":"2025-08-04T20:13:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/?page_id=5137"},"modified":"2026-03-08T11:48:59","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T11:48:59","slug":"two-poems-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/vol-6-winter-2025-2027\/two-poems-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Poems"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Abhinav Aradhi<\/em><\/h4>\n
\n

 <\/p>\n

Chlorine<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

To breath is to belabor oneself<\/span><\/p>\n

With a notion of importance, and\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Do you truly lack humility\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To such a staggering degree?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Look inwards, and then at your<\/span><\/p>\n

Visage, and you\u2019ll learn quickly the\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Demerits of your existence, the pitfalls<\/span><\/p>\n

Of your pratfall life, oh, you\u2019ll feel it then,<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Like when I dragged my sister\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Out of a drowning grave at a waterpark,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And I felt like a Savior, and now I wonder<\/span><\/p>\n

If it really mattered at all.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And was it really me, who saved her,<\/span><\/p>\n

Or was it my hands and feet independent?<\/span><\/p>\n

And why can I not prevent things from<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Occurring, before they ever leave the station?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/span>And this reminds me\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span>of when I nearly drowned<\/span><\/p>\n

In a big pool at a Chicago gated community,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And I felt fear and life and water, and it was\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Then that I questioned the reality of meaning.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And I wade, heretofore, and I must confess,<\/span><\/p>\n

To the Fates and their yarn\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>by the pool edge,<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

That I still don\u2019t know how to swim.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

Crickets<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Papa says i\u2019m a good-for-nothing, <\/span><\/p>\n

and i like swimming in the creek,<\/span><\/p>\n

when the woods are at a serene terror, and Mama hasn\u2019t beaten the\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

dust out of my shorts quite yet. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mama twirls my hair sometimes in\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span>wood-rotted hands, and she\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>whispers like a breeze,<\/span><\/p>\n

and she and I sometimes live\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span>in the palatial and in that thing she calls a dream.<\/span><\/p>\n

and she and I sometimes cry\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span>somewhere between the worn-oak door and the crawl\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

space beneath the creaking porch seats.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

and he comes swimming around here sometimes.<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0i think he\u2019s a nymph or something.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

his hair reminds me of\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span>summer up at Niagara, where Papa said to me,<\/span><\/p>\n

you\u2019re the strangest child I ever seen.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

and his skin is ghostly, but I think he\u2019s all kinds of real,<\/span><\/p>\n

because he smiles,<\/span><\/p>\n

and my skin gets all tingly,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

and the trees hang entirely still, not daring to make\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

a sound, the pindrop sensation only burst by the\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>soft, silken, ambrosia of his\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

gentle wading,\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span>back and forth, to and from me.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

boy, i yell like Papa, <\/span><\/p>\n

and he grins like whiplash,\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span>and he\u2019s atop me,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

and we\u2019re writhing, and he\u2019s drowning me in crashing waves against<\/span><\/p>\n

my lips,\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>and he\u2019s a nymph and I\u2019m the one lured into the<\/span><\/p>\n

swirling vortex of<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 he.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

My nymph, he and I understand\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

fervor out there in the creek, down the dirt trail<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

past where Papa likes to whistle and wipe down<\/span><\/p>\n

the old rifle he says\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

seems to keep trouble\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

far from company.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Abhinav Aradhi<\/strong> hails from Cranbury, New Jersey. He expects to graduate in 2027. He writes, “A<\/span>ll of my poetry comes from a personal place, or a feeling I want to draw on. The ideas for what I write come to me like blurs, and once I have the idea concretely in mind, I let it all sort of spill onto the paper. A little about me: I\u2019m 20 at the moment, I love watching Big Brother & Survivor, and I\u2019m a massive fan of Nintendo games. My favorite book series of all time is <\/span>Nancy Drew<\/span><\/i>.”<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Abhinav Aradhi   Chlorine   To breath is to belabor oneself With a notion of importance, and\u00a0 Do you truly lack humility\u00a0 To such a staggering degree?\u00a0   Look inwards, … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2513,"featured_media":0,"parent":5102,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-5137","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTwo Poems - Writers House Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/vol-6-winter-2025-2027\/two-poems-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Two Poems - Writers House Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Abhinav Aradhi   Chlorine   To breath is to belabor oneself With a notion of importance, and\u00a0 Do you truly lack humility\u00a0 To such a staggering degree?\u00a0   Look inwards, … Read More\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/vol-6-winter-2025-2027\/two-poems-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Writers House Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-08T11:48:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/vol-6-winter-2025-2027\/two-poems-2\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/writers-house-review\/vol-6-winter-2025-2027\/two-poems-2\/\",\"name\":\"Two Poems - 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